


I Move The Stars For No One

by AraSigyrn



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), American Idol RPF, Kris Allen (Musician)
Genre: AU, Community: kradamadness, Labyrinth fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-22
Updated: 2011-01-22
Packaged: 2017-10-14 23:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/154793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AraSigyrn/pseuds/AraSigyrn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Little brothers are pests, but that doesn't mean Kris should give his brat of a brother to the Goblins.</p><p>A fairy tale in thirteen parts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Move The Stars For No One

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to deannawol for reading, correcting and cheerleading despite the bronchitis.

Kris is just barely 15 when his parents move Conway, dragging Kris along like a resentful thundercloud of confused teenage hormones and angst. He doesn't entirely understand why they brought him here. Little Rock wasn't a particularly cosmopolitan city but it was a city with friends Kris had has since kindergarten and basically everyone Kris knows in the world.

In Conway there are a couple of cheap diners, the baseball field and the high school and a big library which isn't locked until seven at night. The internet is spotty and erratic and the kids in Kris' classes are all neatly divided into their groups and there's no place in the neatly interlocked cliques for Kris.

Danie l gets all the attention. Their parents are so busy worrying about whether or not their precious little baby boy is 'settling' that Kris is lucky to get five minutes of attention a day. Five minutes is how long it takes his mom to tell him that he needs to study, shower every day and look at maybe joining one of the extra-curricular clubs in his new school, like it's Kris' fault they moved here in the middle of the school year. The only club with a free spot is the Chastity club and Kris only goes once because one of the girls there, who doesn't blink enough, sees him collecting Daniel and spends three weeks talking about how Kris will be an awesome dad.

Kris doesn't think when he says "Only through adoption," and outs himself as (probably) bi-sexual. The Chasity club don't want him back after that.

Daniel sabotages Kris' life in other ways too. It's not enough that Kris becomes invisible when he's in a room with his brother and his parents. Daniel needs to ruin Kris' chances of a social life entirely. The middle school had lots of spaces in the after school clubs and Daniel joins band, debate, book club and a Volunteer Group called 'Togs for Tots' that sorts second hand clothes for an overseas charity.

Kris has to hang around for three hours four days a week so Daniel doesn't walk home alone. There isn't eve n a Starbucks or a diner that Kris can hang out in and if he isn't waiting outside the doors, Daniel tattles and Kris gets grounded.

~*~*~

The library is the only place Kris can go after school. The librarian, Mrs Michelson doesn't like him much but she doesn't actively hate him like she does just about every other student in the town so Kris can take a book down and find the battered beanbag behind the encyclopedias and read for hours with his iPod playing softly.

The library is musty, dusty and old. It smells of books and the grandmother perfume that Mrs Michelson wears. There are damp patches on the back walls, surrounded by carefully emptied shelves. The only computer is a chunky DOS machine that must have been new and shiny in 1981. The printer looks like a chunky droid from Star Wars.

The newest book Kris can find in the fiction area is ' _Great Lion of God_ by Taylor Caldwell which is slow and features St. Paul the unibrowed and leonine. Kris gets about a hundred and fifty pages in before he gives up.

The other books in the library are different. The leather bound books that look like Victorian statistics books are something very different. They're _fairy tales_.

Kris learned his fairy stories from Disney VHS tapes. Fairies seen through the eyes of writers like Charles Perrault and Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are capricious, fantastic and fickle. Kris reads every story he can lay his hands on.

His favorite is the story of Sarah, who is brave and human and saves her brother and is happy ever after.

(If the shadows in Kris' corner start to move, no one sees them.)

~*~*~

Afterwards, Kris can't even remember what the fight was about. It starts with him – or maybe Daniel – saying something and without Kris ever meaning it, suddenly they're shouting and yelling and Kris slams the door when he leaves.

He goes to the library because, well, where else can he go? The baseball team is training on the sports field and all his friends who might have let him into watch television or play video games until he calmed down are hundreds of miles away.

The Book of Goblins is lying beside his beanbag and Kris won't remember until it's too late that he _always_ puts the books away.

(If the shadows are whispering in languages that even storytellers forget, no one hears them.)

"I can bear it no longer! Goblin King! Goblin King! Wherever you may be take this child of mine far away from me! " Kris reads. He's breathing too fast, heart racing and flushed with anger.

He's so angry and maybe most of that isn't Daniel's fault but he's the spark and now Kris is burning too furious to be reasonable. His phone beeps, a text from his mom who has Church and is reminding Kris that he has to be home to babysit Daniel.

Kris hates Daniel for that, a surge of fury because Kris can't even have time to calm down to himself any more. He runs the whole way home and finds his mom already gone and Daniel in his room. Daniel has spilled Coke all over Kris' music sheets and it's dribbling off his desk and onto Kris' guitar, plinking against the strings and it's the worst thing Daniel has ever done to Kris.

"I hate you," Kris shouts. "I wish the goblins _would_ take you away!"

~*~*~

The thing about wishes is that wishes don't work if they're fair or reasonable. Wishes only work if you want them to, with all your heart.

The sun vanishes, there are clouds everywhere and shadows spread like inkstains across the world. Kris covers his eyes against the sudden gust of wind that hurls the French doors apart and when he looks up again, Daniel is gone and his room is grey and gloomy.

A bird, an owl all sleek black-grey plumage and pure blue eyes, is framed in the billowing curtains for a split second, then...

Then there's a man standing in the doorway, splendid in silk and velvet with wild black hair with streaks of dark purple and midnight blue. His face is handsome, beautiful but wild like the depths of the forest. Silver tips the ends of his long lashes and glitters along his cheekbones. He has a cane in one hand and a crystal ball the size of a baseball spins through the fingers of his free hand. His teeth flash white and he towers over Kris like the cusp of nightfall.

Kris freezes, caught between the urge to run away and the gravitational pull _towards_. He feels feverish, burning up under that intense focus..

"I brought you a gift," The man says as the crystal spins.

"What is it?" Kris asks, vibrating with the tension and the fathomless tide of this conversation.

"A crystal," another heated, private smile. "Just a crystal. Turn it this way or that and it will show you your dreams."

There's a second where it's almost like the crystal is singing, a snatch of music so beautiful that it starts an ache in Kris' chest and hollows out his heart, Then the man flips his wrist and the crystal flashes in the last stray rays of sunlight and is just a glass ball again.

"But this is not a crystal for a plain little boy who plays music without sound and takes care of his spoiled little brother."

"You-you're him!" Kris says, heart seizing up in a lurch of terror and awe. "The Goblin King!"

"The Twilight King," the man/King corrects.

"I want my brother back," Kris says urgently. "Please!"

"What's said is said," the King steps closer. "Wishes are given rarely and never taken back."

"But I didn't mean it!" Kris cries and it's true. Daniel is many things, most of them annoying but he's Kris' brother and that trumps everything else.

"Didn't you?" The King shrugs, languid and feline but his eyes are sharp and greedy.

"I-I challenge you," Kris is desperate, voice cracking a little but it's the right thing to say. Kris knows fairy tales and how they _have_ to go.

The King quirks a dark eyebrow, prowls closer until Kris has to crane his neck to look up. Then he smiles and Kris feels fear, cold and bitter in his stomach. The crystal spins, stops and there's a rush of air.

The King throws back his cloak and Kris can see something huge and fantastic outside his window where his mom's vegetable garden and dying rose bush should be.

"A challenge then," he points to a tiny, impossible castle that could be a hundred miles away. "My home is the Castle at the heart of the Labyrinth and your brother is there. To find your way there, Kristopher, you must solve my Labyrinth. If you can't solve it before the clock strikes thirteen, your brother becomes one of us. Forever."

Kris stares at the vast, shadowed miles of the Labyrinth and swallows. He has to fight to keep his voice steady when he says "Piece of cake."

~*~*~

Kris runs into the Labyrinth, hand tight around the crystal, still warm from the King's hands and the King's rich laughter echoing behind him. The sky is dusty red and grey overhead and there are thick, vicious thorns on the briars that cover the walls and block everything except the path he's following. Kris thinks of the sharp sweep of the black lines under the King's eyes and shivers.

He runs and still the King's laughter echoes behind and around him. Somewhere, a clock is ticking inexorably down and all Kris can do is run until his lungs burn with the dust and his legs are weak and wobble.

There are no rules in a faerie maze, Kris knows as he stumbles to a stop, gasping for air. Nothing is ever what it seems. He tries to remember what the stories say but all he can think about is Daniel, waiting and trusting that Kris will find him.

Taking in a deep breath, Kris starts running again.

~*~*~

Kris is lost in the briars for hours. He feels every minute passing and he's frantic and turns left where the path turns right and he goes sprawling out into a pleasant open space filled with surreal trees and fountains. It's quiet and the echoes are gone, leaving Kris lost and alone.

"It's not fair," Kris says, bitter-furious because the briars had a path but this garden just stretches and stretches for miles. He could spend thirteen _days_ here and never get out.

He wants to just curl up and have everything just be better when he wakes up but even in the Labyrinth, the world doesn't work like that. So Kris starts to look for a tree to climb. He doesn't know which way to go but the Labyrinth sloped up towards the castle, right?

Somewhere off to his right, Kris hears something that sounds like wind-chimes. He goes forward, cautiously because this might turn out to be someone (or some _thing_ )'s garden and Kris really doesn't want to die here.

He uses one of the fountains for cover and peers out warily. His jaw drops. There are fairies – real, honest-to-god _fairies_ \- fluttering around a wizened oak tree that sways and groans in the wind. Kris watches for a second, entranced before he realizes that there's no wind.

The oak groans and a branch swats at the fairies who easily flit out of the way and giggle in a nasty high-pitched way that makes Kris bristle. He picks up some pebbles from the bottom of the pile and throws them.

Kris used to play baseball before they moved to Conway and he's a good pitcher. He knocks three fairies out of the air entirely before the rest of them zip away, sounding like crystal bottles tumbling down the stairs.

The tree straightens with a creak and groan and there's what might be a face in the whorls and twists of bark along its trunk. Kris drops the last of his pebbles back into the fountain and rubs at the back his neck, a little embarrassed.

"Um, this might be a weird question but, I'm kinda lost. Do you know the way?"

The tree rustles its leaves and one of the biggest branches creaks as it twists down to point to the right and the tree groans again.

"Thanks!" Kris smiles and hurries away.

The tree settles back, rustling contentedly as he goes and if Kris had known how to speak the language of trees, he might have heard the pleased "That way is safe. Safe away from the Castle."

~*~*~

Kris meets Tommy in the middle of an octagonal courtyard, full of fountains. Tommy is throwing stones at the mermaids who splash him whenever he turns his back. Tommy curses them in a raspy voice that seems to come up from under his toes. It doesn't sound like the voice that should belong to an elf like that.

"Damn and blast you!" Tommy rages and kicks at the fountain, making the chain around his ankle rattle.

"Hello?" Kris calls uncertainly and Tommy throws a stone at him. "Ow! That hurt!"

"Was meant to!" Tommy snarls. "Stupid tricksy mermaids."

"I'm not a mermaid," Kris argues, rubbing his head. "I'm a boy."

"A boy? Don't make me laugh," Tommy snorts. "There aren't boys in the Goblin Kingdom. The Twilight King wouldn't allow it!"

"He let me in," Kris says, just a little smug. He thinks of the King's piercing blue stare and feels his cheeks go pink. "And he took my brother."

"Took your brother? Why'd he do that?"

"I...got angry," Kris says miserably. "And I wished the goblins would take him away."

"Seems straightforward to me," Tommy spits at a mermaid. "Why'd you follow him?"

"I have to get him back!"

"Shouldn't have wished him away then," Tommy plants his hands on his hips. "You've got no call to complain."

"But I have to get to the castle before the clocks strike thirteen or Daniel will be turned into a goblin!"

"Serves you both right," Tommy snorts. "And that's not the way to the castle, anyway.."

"Yes, it is."

"Bloody isn't," Tommy growls. "You need to be going that way to get to the Castle."

"You know the way to the Castle?" Kris says hopefully. "Can you show me?"

"I'm a bit," Tommy rattles the chain meaningfully. "Tied up at the moment."

"Well, how do I get that off you then?" Kris demands. Tommy makes an obscene gesture towards the mermaids.

"Answer we, our riddles three," the mermaids sing.

"Well, what are the riddles?" Kris asks, mind racing back to dusty books and Mrs Michelson's almost-approving smile.

"Our first belongs only to you, though others use it more than you do," the mermaid says.

"Our second gets bigger only when you take more away," a mermaid from the fountain behind pipes up.

"Our third comes at night without being fetched and goes in the morning without being stolen."

"Belongs to me but others use.," Kris thinks. "Name! My name."

The first mermaid smiles and sinks back into her fountain.

"Only gets bigger the more you take aw-A hole!" Kris says.

The second mermaid smiles and sinks back into her fountain.

"Comes at night," Kris bites his lip. That is totally not a fair riddle to ask a teenage boy. His mind flicks back to the King, soft pink lips and brilliant white teeth and Kris shivers. "Comes at night, goes in the morning. A lover-no, no that's not it."

The third mermaid starts to reel in Tommy's chain and he starts hollering and cursing and Kris presses both hands against the sides of his head and thinks as hard as he can.

 _Comes at night, the crystal flashing bright against the King's dark cloak, comes without being fetche-_

"The stars!" Kris shouts. "It's the the stars."

The third mermaid coos disappointedly but smiles at him and sinks back into her fountain. Tommy's chain turns to water and he curses and shakes his foot.

"Got my boots all wet!"

"The Castle," Kris says urgently. "Show me the way to the Castle!"

"Shan't," Tommy says with a sneering, leering grin.

"But you said-"

"I said I _could_ take you to the castle," Tommy cackles. "I never said I _would_."

"That's not FAIR!" Kris shouts.

"Life's not fair," Tommy smirks again and disappears.

"It's not fair," Kris rubs fiercely at his eyes and kicks at some weeds. Then, he sighs, turns around and starts jogging back the way he came.

~*~*~

The way back changes and eventually Kris finds himself walking through walled passage ways. The light is sharper here, casting deeper shadows and Kris isn't surprised when her turns a corner to find the King waiting for him.

Here, in his own kingdom, he looks even more magnificent; wearing his surroundings like a cloak and the crystal ball is spinning through his fingers. He smiles at Kris and the crystal leaps from his fingers to hang in the air.

"What do you think of my Labyrinth, Kristopher?" The King holds both arms out like a showman, or a dragon about to take wing.

Kris stuffs his hands in the pockets of his jeans and looks away before he can answer.

"I must say," the King interrupts before the words can form. "I am _surprised_ that you made it this far. Riddling with mermaids, dealing with elves? You aren't as insignificant as you seem, are you?"

Kris grits his teeth and counts to thirteen. He means it to be ten but his brain keeps going. You can't enter Faerie, Kris knows, without being changed.

"Turn back, Kristopher," the King says, voice low and compelling. "Forget the boy and turn back."

"I won't," Kris says. He doesn't shout because the Twilight King is too magnificent to be shouted at. He doesn't scream because he's not the screaming type. He says it calm and even with all the force of his will behind it.

The King laughs and he's behind Kris who spins to look at him but the King is always moving and Kris is dizzy with it until his shoulder blades hit the wall and the King is suddenly there, pressing him back with the heat of his body but not _quite_ touching.

"What do you think of my Labyrinth, Kristopher?" He purrs the words in the heated spaces between them and Kris feels the heat kindling a burning red blush.

"Cake," he says, just to see the King react – to wipe the arrogant curl from his lips – and the King's smile shows too many teeth. "It's a piece of cake."

"Cake, is it?" He steps back, the shock of cool air make Kris shiver and points a hand to the clock Kris hadn't even seen. "How will you like this little slice?"

And the hands are spinning forward, chopping more time from Kris' precious hours and he pushes off the wall, hands outstretched towards the clock and it stops. The hands point to six o'clock and that's three hours gone. Taken.

"That's not _fair_ ," Kris rages.

The King laughs and is gone when Kris turns back, only the owl winging its way over the vast expanse of the Labyrinth and the echoes of his laughter filling the shadows.

~*~*~

Cale, Kris finds in a huge heavy net with small vicious goblins poking him with sticks. Kris throws rocks at them even if he doesn't expect much in return because goblins that like putting perfectly nice ...giant hairy whatever-the-hell-Cale's-supposed-to-bes in nets to poke with sticks deserve to have stones thrown at them.

Cale doesn't actually talk though he can grunt and roar but Kris is still pretty sure he's grateful. It takes thirteen minutes before Cale will let him down and Kris is panting with his ribs one big giant ache under his skin. Cale is still ...smiling? Doing something with his mouth that involved showing teeth and not biting Kris which is close enough to count as a smile.

Kris actually likes having him there because he's good company, and big enough that he can boost Kris over the walls and clamber along after him. He still doesn't know how much longer it will take to get to the Castle but he's starting to hope that maybe they'll make it.

Tommy finds them in time to rescue them from a trap with griffins and spikes and he slouches along but he knows the way and he's not really slowing them down. He snarks and he's crude and blunt and Cale tries to bite him a half a dozen times just in the first ten minutes but Kris is glad to see him.

He doesn't know why Tommy keeps one hand in the pocket of his dirty leather trousers. He pulls Tommy out a few sticky situations (seriously, is there anyone in the whole Labyrinth that Tommy doesn't owe his ass too?) and wonders at the guilty flush and averted eyes.

It's getting dark when they stop and Kris' stomach rumbles loud enough that he blushes and Cale laughs. Tommy's smile is tight and fake but he takes a pomegranate out his pocket.

"No sense in letting the Twilight King hear us coming, eh?"

"Thank you, Tommy," Kris smiles and Tommy looks away as Kris bites into it. "I'm glad you came back."

"Kris, wait!" Tommy cries, turning back with one hand out. "Don't-"

~*~*~

 _"Tommy, what have you_ done?"

The music is soft, a slow waltz that makes Kris sway in time to the subdued beat. He's spinning, slowly spinning through a crowd of dancers. There's a mask on his face, he feels the pressure of the fabric and he drifts alone through the couples, not quite in step.

The lights are sparkling crystals that give shape to shadows rather than lighting the room and Kris tips his head up to stare. The music is thrumming through the room and it's warm enough that he's sweating and opens his mouth to breathe.

From the darkness in the center of the room, a hand takes his and sweeps him into the waltz. His partner is taller, strong and masterful, leading Kris into the heart of the dance and they dance through the shadowy ballroom. Kris stares into his partner's blue, vivid eyes and feels his heart beating through every muscle and sinew. He feels every inch of the solid warm body he's pressed against, the weight of his partner's hand in the small of his back and the clasp of their hands.

"Stay with me," a whisper comes. "I will scatter the stars at your feet, I will give you the jewels of the earth, I will give you anything you desire, everything you wish for. Just stay with me."

Kris sways closer, lips parting-

-and a clock is chiming. Somewhere a clock is striking eleven and Kris blinks up into the eyes of the Twilight King. Eleven. Eleven hours gone and Kris' mouth snaps shut. He pushes back, away, and spins to run from the room.

There are walls, glass walls curving up and sealed tight and Kris claws at the crystal with strength born of equal parts terror and desperation. There's a gilt chair and the other dancers are tugging him back and Kris snatches up the chair and hurls it at the wall. The world shatters.

~*~*~

Kris wakes shouting, to find Cale has Tommy by the scruff of his neck. Cale is roaring ponderously and wow, did he always have those claws? Kris is still dizzy and the phantom feel of the King's hands sends goosebumps up his spine.

"I'm SORRY!" Tommy is shouting. "I didn't _want_ to do it! I had to! Don't you understand!?"

"Cale," Kris says, then louder " _Cale_ , let him down."

Cale roars again but drops Tommy in front of Kris, showing off his fangs. Kris can still taste the half-eaten pomegranate when he licks his lips and Tommy looks at him then down to where his boots are scuffing the grass.

"Tommy," Kris says and Tommy bites his lip. "Why did you do that?"

"I had to," Tommy says again, looking up at Kris with wide eyes. "It's the King."

"He made you come back," Kris realizes, hollowed out and aching. He liked Tommy and his bitchy sense of humor and his knack for getting past traps. He'd believed that Tommy liked him.

Tommy is quiet for a moment then he says quietly, "Yes. He found me on the way home. Said I had to follow you, give you that."

Kris stares down at the pomegranate and kicks it away viciously. "Why?"

"I had to," Tommy insists, words tripping over themselves as he talks fast, waving his hands. "It's not my fault! He's the King, I have to obey the King!"

"Why?"

"Because he's the King! The Twilight King isn't just some Goblin or Faerie! The King is the Land!" Tommy is almost shouting. "You can't disobey the King's Command! It would be like-like disobey your blood or your bones. The King commands and you must obey. That's the way things _work_!"  
Kris shakes his head, scrubs at his eyes. "Are we-Is this really the road to the Castle?"

"Yes," Tommy says immediately and Cale growls. "Yes, all right? He never said I couldn't put you on the road to the Castle so I did!"

"How far is it?" Kris asks. "How much longer?"

"Hour and a half maybe," Tommy shrugs. "There's the Doors to get through first."

"The Doors?" Kris demands."Like the band?"

"Band? You mean like an army? No. I don't know what the Doors are," Tommy admits. "They're the last barrier before the Castle gates. If you pick the right Door, you wind up in the Castle. I know that."

"How do you pick the right door?" Kris is standing up, dusting off his jeans and looking up the rack. It might just be his imagination but Kris thinks the class

"I don't know," Tommy says and Cale grunts threateningly and Tommy glares up at him. "I said I don't know! I never came this far by myself!"

"I have to get to the Castle," Kris says quietly and starts to run down the track. He doesn't look back to see if either of them are following him in case they don't.

He runs for the better part of an hour, head down and running steadily. It's a marathon, not a sprint, Kris chants to himself. He can hear Cale loping along behind him, only because something Cale-sized is incapable of moving though human-sized hedgeways with anything like stealth.

The Doors turn out to be actual doors, huge Gothic nightmares of tarnished brass and dark wood. There are two leering gargoyle faces sticking out of each door and they're really- well, there's no other word for it - _hideous_. The one on the left looks like a man who's smelled something really, really bad and has a ring in his ears. The one on the right looks like a woman with one of those fake TV personality manic smiles and she's got a ring between her grubby teeth.

"It's rude to stare," The one with the ring in his ears sneers.

"Oh, sorry," Kris sputters. Cale warbles unhappily behind him.

"WHAT?" The first knocker hollers. "WHAT DID YOU SAY? SPEAK UP, CAN'T YOU?"

"Ish nuf oos awking oo im," the other knocker says.

"Sorry," Kris starts but the first knocker chimes in again.

"Don't waste your time talking to her. She's always running her mouth," the knocker has a nasal British accent and looks like he's been sucking on a rotten lemon.

Kris looks back at the second knocker and takes hold of the ring, tugging tentatively. He remembers seeing one of the jocks who'd been drunk after a game and stuffed a pool ball in his mouth. Taking the ring (cold iron and heavier than it looks) out of the knocker's mouth reminds him of that; there's brute force and trying desperately to read what her expression is telling him. Finally, it comes free with a pop.  
"Thank you so much, sweetie," she's got an American accent and the syrupy sweet voice of someone who wants to be considered nice. "You're such a lovely boy."

"I need to get to the Castle," Kris says urgently. "How do I get there?"

"Through one of the Doors," the second knocker says.

"WHAT?"

"HE' ASKING HOW TO GET TO THE CASTLE," the second knocker yells helpfully.

"Why does he want a tassel?" The first knocker looks at Kris suspiciously.

"THE **CASTLE** ," the second knocker screams.

"Oh, so he wants through the doors, does he?" The first knocker grins viciously. "No problem."

"What do I have to to?" Kris asks warily.

"Knock and Enter, my dear," the second knocker explains, still smiling rustily.

"Which door?" Kris asks immediately.

"Guess," the first knocker smirks.

Kris takes a deep breath. "Okay, so. There are two ways this can go. You can be a gentleman – or lady, sorry, ma'am- and tell me which is the right door or I can ask Cale to rip you _off_ your door and drop you under that bush over there with the incontinent magpies in it. Your choice."

There is a pause and the second knocker says, very fast "His door, knock twice and enter and straight across the drawbridge."

"Thank you, ma'am," Kris says because his momma raised him to be polite. He hooks her ring on her hair and grabs the second knocker's ring. He takes a deep breath and brings it crashing down on the thick wood of the door.

  
~*~*~

The Castle doesn't look that impressive when you see it over the Labyrinth. It reminded Kris of the cheap, dollar-store castles for fish-tanks, lumpy and badly painted when he got a glimpse of it over the hedges.

From the drawbridge, the Castle looks moumental. There are towers that rise through the sparse clouds and seem to touch the stairs. The walls are deep shades of grey, looming over the moat and even the Labyrinth looks tiny in comparison. The drawbridge is down and there's music floating out through the gaping maw of the gate.

Kris doesn't recognize the music- it sounds like the bass line of a heavy metal song played by dragons on strings of fire – and it sends a jolt of adrenaline and heat down his spine. He feels the music throbbing up through his feet and he's moving faster, heart beating strong enough to rattle his ribs.  
Cale roars behind him and from the moat, rising like wisps of black fire, shadows come flowing in answer. The guards – trolls or ogres or whatever you were supposed to call colossal monsters with tusks as long as Kris' hand – try to fight them off. But Cale is singing now, a repetitive warble of sounds and the shadows are tripping the guards up, knocking them over and tying them up in tangles.

Kris darts past them. Sure the guards are big and strong but Kris is small and nimble. He runs across the courtyard the keep is rising like a nightmare in front of him. Something moves in the corner of his eye.

Before he can turn, there's a crash of metal on metal and Tommy is there, standing between Kris and some nightmarish centaur with a sword longer than Kris is tall. Tommy has this ...stick, banded with criss-crossed strips of bronze but it's holding.

"Go," Tommy shouts. "Go find your brother."

"But you-"

"GO!"

Kris goes and feels like a coward every step of the way. The keep is almost empty of guards and most of the ones that remain are goblins, negligible and aggressive. Kris barrels through them, using some moves he picked up from Power Rangers.

"Daniel!" He shouts desperately. "Daniel!"

"KRIS!"

"DANIEL!" Kris dives around the corner and nearly falls over the edge. The room? Rooms? He has stumbled into like a copy of Escher's drawings as copied by an artist on more LSD than the entire Hippy generation. Light skews and refracts wrong and the shadows cast by the crystal globes that roll across floors that become walls or ceilings makes his brain hurt.

"Daniel!" Kris sees a flash of terror-wide eyes _above_ him and he runs forward. Gravity keeps his feet on the floor and Kris isn't suicidal enough to try jumping (yet).

Then the King laughs and Kris skids to a halt on an open landing, a crystal globe rolling across the floor and letting him see the King's face.

"Kristopher, darling Kristopher, " The King is coming closer, the light of the globe trailing away and he looks ...smaller here. Still the Twilight King but he's not wearing the cloak or the jeweled pins and he looks like something that's-...still magical and proud and _impossible_ but in his own right. "I am getting tired of this game. Do not provoke me for I can be cruel, as cruel as the Winter frost."

"Game!?" Kris snaps because anger is familiar. He glares up at the King. "This isn't a GAME!"

"Of course it is," the King says, stepping even closer. "The greatest game of all."

"You _took_ my brother!"

"Because you asked me to! All this, everything, was for you," the King holds out his arms and behind Kris, on a a staircase that leads up from the right wall, another globe tumbles down the steps. The light catches the King's eyes and they _shine_. "All I have ever done, Kristopher, was done for you, at your request. You wanted your brother taken? I too k him. You wanted to fear me and I was terrifying. You wanted an adventure and have I not obliged?"

"Give me back my brother then," Kris demands.

"Done," the King says immediately and waves his hand. Daniel comes running up some stairs below the landing they're standing on and races over to Kris. "I will give you anything, _everything_ your heart desires, if only you will surrender to me."

Kris looks up just as the King's gloved fingers graze his cheek. Daniel is clinging to his waist, shaking and sobbing. Seen so close, the King's eyes are very, very blue and he burns like a furnace.

"I don't even know your name..." Kris breathes.

"Adam," the King says softly. "All others know only the Twilight King but I am Adam always, to you."

Kris wavers, feels the 'YES' along his tongue and Daniel whimpers. Kris looks down at his bratty brother then slowly up at the King. Sarah's story, Kris remembers. The dream or his brother. He licks his lips and slowly shakes his head.

" I have battled my way here, to the heart of the Castle beyond the Labyrinth to reclaim my brother who you have stolen. My will is as strong as yours," Kris says quietly but with utter determination. "My heart as great. You have no power over me."

The King goes still as the world splinters around them and the darkness rushes in. Before it can sweep them away, he leans in and kisses Kris, right on the lips.

"I swore that I would grant your every desire," he breathes. "I will even let you leave me but love, if you need me, speak my name and the words and I will hear."

Kris closes his eyes and opens them to find he and Daniel are curled up under a blanket on the couch in his parents' living room. The evening breeze is rattling the curtains and through the open window, Kris sees an owl winging away over the treetops.

~*~*~

Daniel gets his scholarship to Harvard two weeks after Kris turns twenty five. There's a big party, everyone in Conway practically and he's giddy with joy. Kris is there, the ever-dependable big brother. Kris drinks and laughs and makes sure Daniel doesn't drink too much.

"You don't need to do that," Daniel tells him around eight o'clock, tipsy but sober enough to be serious. He's tugged Kris outside the house and told his mom they were admiring the sunset.

"I'm your big brother," Kris says with that small, sad smile. "It's my job."

"I'm going to Harvard," Daniel points out. "I'm all grown-up now. I love you. I do but I think it's time for me to look after myself."

Kris studies him, the last of the sunlight turning Kris' skin to gold and Daniel tries not to feel guilty that Kris never went to college, or looking for a record contract. Hell, Daniel's never seen him with a girlfriend or even a boyfriend. Kris has been taking care of him his whole life and Daniel wants – needs – to start being independent but he wants Kris to be happy. That's the most important thing of all.

Kris smiles, wide and purely happy. "You're right. You're a man now, Danny-boy. Congratulations."

Daniel goes willingly into the hug but hangs on tight when Kris would have stepped back. "You and me? We're okay, right?"

Kris steps back and smiles at him. "We're always all right. You go get back to your guests, Daniel."

"You sure," Daniel hesitates in the doorway. "It's your party too, you know?"

"It's really not," Kris smiles. "I'm good, man. You go ahead."

Daniel looks back once more but Kris is already looking out over the backyard with the setting sun on his right and the darkness on his left. It's the last time Daniel will see his brother and the last thing he ever hears his brother say is "Adam..."


End file.
